The Thicket at State Legislatures has a blog post entitled Prohibition Era Laws Falling by the Wayside. Connecticut, the last state in the Union besides Indiana to still prohibit Sunday alcohol sales, is considering a repeal of that ban.
Since 2002, fifteen states have repealed bans on Sunday sales: Arkansas, Colorado, Delaware, Georgia, Idaho, Kansas, Kentucky, Massachusetts, New York, Ohio, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Virginia, and Washington. Georgia is the most recent state to loosen its alcohol laws, passing local control just last year.
. . .
Thirteen states restrict Sunday sales, but only Connecticut and Indiana ban selling all alcohol, including beer and wine, on Sundays. But if lawmakers in Connecticut have their way, the so-called blue law policy, a relic of the Prohibition era, could soon be no more.
This archaic puritanical ban on the sale of “to-go” alcoholic beverages on Sunday should be ended immediately!
I am not a drinker or religious person, but all “blue laws” should be removed from the laws. The continued fight between left and right on these topics should become history lessons. Granted, the Sunday alcohol sales laws are not totally based on religion but in large part the lobbying power of certain alcoholic beverage retailers and perhaps some association within the restrictive areas of protection of territories. The effort to exclude Indiana produced products is not really good policy, but may be good polictics.
There are two laws I wish the Indiana legislature would pass yesterday:
One is the requirement of publication of “legal notice” in the newspaper for litigation, county decisions and so on (it should be replaced with a website which would add functionality and reduce costs).
The second is this prohibition against selling alcohol on sundays. It is anti-consumer, anti-freedom, and anti-convenience. Why do cars and alcohol get special treatment? I have never undertood why these two are different from any other industry.
They have better lobbyists and/or our legislators don’t like change.
Separation of church and state, I think it’s time for Sunday prohibition to end. Although I wonder if the Restaurant Association is pushing for it to be kept in place. At least we don’t have the state liquor stores like Ohio.
This law, and others are clearly violations of church and state. Simply why not have the sales bans on any other day than sunday? why single out sunday for special treatment? I would be happy to find an ACLU ICLU lawyer, and make a court case for this , and treat sunday like a monday- every day with “Y” the same.. WHY? to stick it to all the social conservatives, the religious fundamentalists, the evangelical republicans- all those intrude into my life RADICAL CHRISTIAN EXTREMists that want to force their ways on to the rest of us, and into our private lives.
Besides- this “blue law” is a joke- people stock up on saturdays, or go acros state lines on sundays, to buy their beer, wine, liquor carryout.
I used to live in columbus Ohio, and their drive through party stores are the greatest thing “since sliced bread”- what a great idea!
While were at it. decriminalize OWI/DUI- for social drinkers who are singled out for special treatment, and harassment by the police on weekend nights, and others. as long as a person isnt driving like a lunatic, or all over the road, leave them alone.If they are stopped, issue like a civil parking ticket fine- of say 100- or 200 dollars. stop the insurance company corporate greed. raise the legal limit to 1.5; and lower the legal drinking age to 18- that will create jobs, and draw the young creative class college age fun people to our state.
i’ll be short- but legalize recreational marijuana as well- that will also create “GREEN JOBS”, and an alternative, diversified economy. because manufacturing jobs, and UAW wages jobs- like our parents knew- they are either overseas, or gone forever;
so when will an ACLU/ICLU lawyer be contacting me? you have my e-mail.
From what I’ve read, there is support for a change, but the lawmakers are apparently knuckling under pressure by the association representing liquor stores.
This fact sheet is hilarious, what with liquor store owners arguing against Sunday sales because they can contribute to more alcohol problems:
http://www.indianabeverageretailers.org/documents/final-factsheet-IABR-sundaysales.pdf
Of course, the issue is that liquor stores, unlike grocery and big-box stores, would have to pay extra costs to open one more day, and may well see the same amount of sales spread over seven days instead of six.